Document Converter Bug

UPDATE (3/1 3pm) – With this post and the “What’s New…” email, I have received several more reports of this issue. So, I’ve reverted back to a previous configuration to fix this issue. You should not see the message below any more. If you do, please contact us in eLearning. -Nate

D2L seems to have had a lot of issues with their February update. The one we are currently working involves the document converter. Students are occasionally reporting that when attempting to open a Word, PDF or Excel file in the D2L Previewer, they are getting the message, “There was an error converting this document. Please try again later or contact your administrator.”

D2L error message regarding converting of document

Before this last update, D2L didn’t convert files for viewing, but rather just displayed a preview of the file. This preview was not accessible and many colleges around the country asked for a more accessible view. This new conversion tool is more (though not fully) accessible, but now we are running into errors. If you see this error, please send me a link or directions how you got it and I’ll add it to the system-level ticket.

Documents can still be downloaded to your computer for viewing in their native format. This is what we recommend for any students with accessibility needs any way, but this is another example where accessibility features help all of us.